Cauliflower Bisque

This has been one of my favorite soups for a long time, but I always made it with dairy.  I try to eat Whole 30 style whenever I can, so I tried it with coconut milk, and it is just as good if not better!  I am a total saffron slut and not ashamed of it!

Cauliflower Bisque

Whatcha Need:

2 cups water
2 cups chicken broth (bone broth if possible)
1/8 ts saffron
3 TB ghee
2 cups onions, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 1/2 lbs cauliflower, chopped
sald and pepper
3/4 cup full fat coconut milk (or can use cream if that is your thang)

Whatcha Do:

Bring the water and chicken broth to a simmer.  Remove from head and crumble in the saffron.  Let it sit for 20 minutes.  In a pot large enough to hold the liquid, saute the onions and garlic in ghee for a few minutes, then add the cauliflower and stir to coat.  Add the liquid to the pot and and salt and pepper to taste.  This soup can take a decent amount of salt.  It seems to bring out the flavor of the saffron more.  Simmer the cauliflower about 20 minutes, or until very tender.  Now comes the easy or hard part, depending on your kitchen tools.  :)  You need to blend this sucker up, and there is nothing I hate more than transferring soup into a blender.  That is why I got an immersion blender, and oh how I love that thing!  So hopefully you have one too!  Whatever your method, process til smooth and then add the coconut milk.  Put it back on the heat to warm it up if necessary and prepare to indulge your senses!

Pork Tenderloin with Merlot Sauce

This is such a delicious recipe!  If you are doing Whole 30, I am sure it would be great with balsamic vinegar substituted for the wine!

Pork Tenderloin with Merlot Sauce

Whatcha Need:

1 pork tenderloin
4 ts minced garlic
1/2 ts salt
1/2 ts pepper
4 TB ghee
3/4 cup merlot
1 (8 ounce) package button mushrooms
1 ts rosemary

Whatcha Do:

Rub 2 ts of minced garlic into the tenderloin and sprinkle with the salt and pepper.  Heat 2 TB of ghee in a non-stick pan and sear the tenderloins on both sides until browned.  Move the tenderloin to a baking dish and add 1/4 cup of wine to the saute pan and simmer for 1-2 minutes. Add another TB of ghee and heat until just melted.  Pour the sauce from the saute pan over the tenderloins and bake the tenderloins at 350 for 30-35 minutes.  During the last 10 minutes of baking, heat the last TB of ghee in the saute pan.  Add 2 ts of minced garlic, the mushrooms and rosemary, and saute on high heat until golden brown.  Add the remaining 1/2 cup of wine and simmer for 2-3 minutes.  Season with salt and pepper to taste. Spoon the mushrooms over the tenderloin and prepared to be delishified.  Yeah I just made that word up.  :)

Spiceology: Smoked Paprika

I think I have found my new favorite spice in the world!  It makes everything wonderful and is good in so many things.  I especially like it on chicken, but I put it on so many things!  It is wonderful stirred into mayo and amazing in scrambled eggs.  I love smoky flavor and spice, so I can imagine adding it to just about anything!  If you have never tried it, I highly recommend it!

Balsamic Beef Stew

I was so excited when I started this blog to get all my favorite paleo recipes in one place, but life happens, and I seem to spend most of my time in the kitchen, shopping or cleaning!  But I want to start getting back to this project, mainly so I don't have to go hunting recipes I used for inspiration.  I think my biggest holdup was that I wanted to take lots of PICTURES! That doesn't seem to be in the cards, though.  I have a hard enough time sitting down to type up instructions!  I guess while the kids are young is not the time for me to have a fancy photo blog.  :)  If I get some up from time to time, good for me. If I don't,

On that note, I am going to kickoff my reentry into blogosphere with what has become my favorite beef stew.  If you knew me a few years ago, you would never have imagined those three words put together would ever come out of my fingers lol.  But I have managed to develop a taste for beef, as long as it is well seasoned.  I still don't care for a straight up steak, and not sure I ever will, but in the meantime, I am finding things to do with the grassfed cow share I bought this year, and this one, in my humble opinion, is divine!

Balsamic Beef Stew

Whatcha Need

Enough ghee to brown your beef, or other FOC (fat of choice)
2-3 pounds stew beef, grass fed if possible, cut into cubes
1 onion, chopped
8 garlic cloves, minced or crushed
1 cup chopped tomatoes (or a whole can is probably fine - I usually use about a cup of the tomatoes I slow roasted from my garden, and those are amazing, but not everybody has slow roasted tomatoes on hand. :) )
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
4 whole cloves
2 bay leaves
1 cinnamon stick
Salt and pepper to taste
Big handful of greens (optional)

Whatcha Do

Heat up your FOC in a dutch oven, and brown the meat.  You may need to do this in batches.  Set the meat aside in a bowl as it is finished.  Saute the onion and garlic until the onion is starting to brown, then add the tomatoes and balsamic vinegar and stir to make sure you are scraping up any yummy bits that have collected on the bottom of the pan.  Add the meat and any juices back to the pan, and add all the spices.  Cover the dutch oven, and cook on low for about 2 hours.  You can also finish this off in a crockpot on  high for about 4 hours.  If I don't have any other veggies to go with my meal, I will often toss in some arugula or kale at the end and cook just till it wilts down.

Mini Vanilla Cake

I am calling this a mini cake because I make it in a mini loaf pan.  I was experimenting with something I could make for my daughter, who is on GAPS, that she could have at her brother's birthday party, and this is what I came up with.  I am not sure how larger amounts of batter might bake up in a bigger pan.  Will update it if I try it.

Mini Vanilla Cake

Whatcha Need:

1/4 cup coconut flour
1/4 ts baking soda
1/8 ts salt
5 egg yolks
3 TB honey
1/4 cup melted coconut oil
2 TB full fat coconut milk
1 ts vanilla

Whatcha Do:

Use a bit of coconut oil to grease the pan.  Mix together the dry ingredients in a small bowl.  In another small bowl, beat the egg yolks until they are creamy.  Because of the small amount, you will probably need to use a beater with just one attachment.  Add in the other liquid ingredients and blend well.  Add the dry ingredients and mix until there are no lumps.  Bake at 350 degrees for about 20-25 minutes.  Check the cake with a toothpick starting at 20 minutes. 

Salmon Cakes

I made these small, like you would think of a crab cake, and for that matter, they would probably be good made with crab or tuna.  I might try to make them patty sized next time, and I also plan on adding dill to them for the adults next time, but I wanted to make them plain first to see if the kids would eat them, and miracle or miracles, they BOTH loved them! I think adding lemon zest would be yummy as well.

Salmon Cakes

Whatcha Need

5oz can salmon, drained
1 egg
2 ts dried onion
1 clove garlic, minced
1 ts dijon mustard
1 ts  coconut flour
salt and pepper, to taste
enough ghee or coconut oil to fry in

Whatcha Do

Heat the ghee or oil over medium heat.  Mix all ingredients together well in a bowl.  Form patties with your hands and fry on both sides til golden brown.  That's it! 

Zucchini Latkes

Wow, these were a major hit with 3 of the 4 humans in the house.  And two of them don't even normally eat zucchini!  No picture because they disappeared as soon as they were cool enough to handle!  They are a bit of work, but totally worth it!  I bet you could also add a variety of spices and/or fry them in coconut oil for variety, but they were so good straight up like this, I probably won't mess with them much, at least if they are mainly for Akasha.

Zucchini "Latkes"

Whatcha Need

2 1/4 cup shredded zucchini
1/2 ts salt, divided
1 egg, beaten
1/2 small onion, chopped fine or grated
2 TB hazelnut flour
pepper to taste
Ghee for frying

Whatcha Do

In a large bowl, sprinkle the zucchini with half the salt and toss it to mix.  Let it sit for about 10 minutes, then squeeze all the moisture out of the zucchini.  This step is kindof a pain, but really important.  Stir in the eggs, onion, nut flour, pepper and other half of salt.  Melt the ghee over medium heat in a frying pan.  I used a tablespoon to drop the batter, but you might be able to make them bigger if you are really careful flipping them.  Flatten them out and fry them on both sides until golden brown.  Drain on paper towels and get ready to inhale them!